Dart games have been in use of a long time. The conventional form of such a dart game employs a dart board that is usually made of cork, paper, or hair, and a plurality of sharp pointed darts. These darts are propelled through the air so that the sharp points of the darts penetrate the dart board.
The sharp points of the darts are not only capable of causing damage to physical objects, but are also capable of causing personal injury. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for dart-related injuries to include loss of sight from misguided or miss thrown sharp pointed steel darts. More frequently reported injuries include having the sharp points of the darts penetrate other portions of one's body.
Because of the known hazards and potential liability, many retail stores do not even carry and sell dart games which employ sharp pointed darts.
A great number of people enjoy playing darts. However, the safety of people around a dart board is always a concern.
In the past, there have been attempts at designing a dart game in which the sharp points of the darts were eliminated. One such game employs a magnetic dart board with the darts having magnetic heads. However, frequently, the magnetic darts will bounce off of the dart board. Also, the darts frequently move or slide upon the board immediately after initial contact which can substantially change a player's score.
One type of a safer dart board that has emerged in recent years utilizes a dart with a magnetic head which is blunt-ended and therefore poses no danger of puncture wound injury. This dart is used with a dart board that can be flexible or non-flexible that is imbedded with iron to enable the magnetic darts to stick thereto. Once a dart hits the board, it sticks to the board by the magnetic attraction between the magnetic dart head and the iron embedded dart board. Such a dart board does not satisfy sophisticated players because it does not have the capability of automatic scoring.
Another type of prior art dart board employs suction cup darts. Such suction cup type of darts frequently bounce off of the board, and when they do stick to the board they often fall off after a period of time when the suction cup loses vacuum. Otherwise, as the surface of the dart board gets worn and/or the suction cups on the darts get old the darts fail to stick to the board.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,989 discloses a bristled dart that is used in conjunction with a spiked dart board.
One advance in the field of dart games is the development of automatic scoring system for dart boards.
Some prior art dart games include a plurality of target areas having normally open switch means that are connected to illuminating means for indicating the strike position of a metal tipped dart which pierces a target area to effect closing of the associated switch means by bridging the same through its metal tip. Such types of dart games are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 2,501,218 to Hill and U.S. Pat. No. 2,693,959 to Ross, Jr.
Another type of prior art dart game includes a plurality of target areas having normally open conductive means on their surfaces which are closed by a conductive projectile as it contacts portions of the conductive means and is retained thereby by some force e.g. magnetic or gravity. Such types of dart games are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 2,863,665 to Gerosolina and U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,076 to Keller respectively.
Another type of prior art dart game includes means for electrically indicating via illuminating means, the impact area of a projectile which is momentarily impacted against but does not remain against the target area. Such types of dart games are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,206,196 Jackson and U.S. Pat. No. 1,569,727 to Donato.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,276 to Brenkert et al discloses a dart game which utilizes electro-mechanical means for effecting counting sequences in response to successive target area impacts by a dart and indicates the cumulative results of the counting sequences on a display board after each impact. This system utilizes simple arithmetic addition of successive inputs as each dart is impacted against various target areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,216,968 to Yeeda discloses a self scoring dart game having electronic means for computing different mathematical functions in response to a series of dart impacts.
A need exists for a dart game wherein sharp pointed darts are eliminated and automatic scoring is provided with in a manner which compensates for darts that strike the dart board, but fail to stick to the dart board or slide on the dart board after landing.